New Dawn
by ComicBookStory
Summary: The title is cheesy, I know...but the fic is not! Leona Andrews graduates from Starfleet and finds herself assigned to the famed Enterprise. Can she find her place there? The rest of the crew  Kirk, Spock etc,  will be there!
1. Chapter 1

**My first Star Trek:2009 fanfiction...so reviews are welcome. Disclaimer: I don't own Start Trek:2009.**

Chapter One

"Promise me that you'll be safe, Leona."

"I will, Aunt Beth." Leona hitched her backpack higher onto her shoulders, feeling a sharp thrill of excitement deep in her stomach as the Airbus flashed into sight, a silver dot growing closer on the horizon. Other passengers at the station stirred as they saw it, too.

"Write home often." Aunt Beth pressed her palm to Leona's cheek, a surprisingly kind gesture. She had never before shown much affection to the girl, and Leona had not expected it. Beth Ponderly was not her relative by blood; rather, they had taken her in as a child and raised her, though not as their own. Leona had often felt distanced from the Ponderly children.

"I will." She said, and turned as the bus lurched to a stop at the depot. It levitated a few yards above the gritty road, suspended on pressurized tracks the likes of which Aunt Beth had clearly never seen.

"What'll they think of next?" She muttered as she nudged Leona toward the bus. The girl waved goodbye and climbed aboard.

"I'll make you proud!" Leona cried, surprising herself. She quickly turned back to the driver, an older man who gave her a sympathetic smile.

"You from the country?" He asked as he punched her ticket. Leona nodded silently. The driver handed her the ticket and raised his eyebrows.

"Headed for the city?"

"Starfleet."

"Jeez." He said. "Jeez." And then, "You look too young, you know?"

"Seventeen, sir." She took the ticket, crumpling it in her hand, and made her way to the back of the half-empty bus. A few weary-looking travelers dozed or read their digitized books on personal reading devices, one of the many futuristic inventions that Beth had never allowed. She claimed to not see the point of changing their ways when everything had been 'just fine' the way it was.

Leona chose a seat near the window, a good distance away from any of the other passengers. She stared out the window at the passing landscape: fields and dirt roads that were punctuated occasionally by a dry dusty little town or farmhouse. It was a lonely landscape, but one that she had grown up with and come to tolerate.

She knew that she was leaving her home behind, and everything that she had ever known: racing the other Ponderly kids home from school, going barefoot on a summer afternoon, reading big, thick-paged storybooks from the shelf in the living room. The thought of abandoning her old life for a new one made Leona nervous, but it was a good kind of nervous, she thought. Like a snake shedding its skin for another, bigger one.

Leona was that snake. She leaned her head against the window and hoped that her new skin would fit.


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks to everyone who read! Disclaimed: I don't own Star Trek:2009.**

Chapter Two

One Year Later

"The Enterprise." Leona's breath seemed to leave her chest. "I'm assigned to the Enterprise?"

"Your performance has been exemplary." Commander Stalker said crisply. "Clearly, you are of above-average intelligence. Graduation after only one year of training is highly unique, especially for a girl of your age."

"Thank you, sir."

The Commander nodded a few times. "Effective immediately. A shuttle leaves from the dry docks in two hours. You'll be one it."

"Yes, sir." Her heart was pounding very quickly. "I will be."

The Enterprise loomed suddenly into sight, a vast white dot against the empty darkness of space, and Leona pressed her palms to the sticky glass window of the shuttle.

"That's really it." She breathed. Beside her, another cadet scoffed.

"What's up with you, kid? You look too young to serve aboard a ship."

"I'm not."

"How old are you, then?"

"Sixteen."

The cadet, a middle-aged man with unruly blond hair, rolled his eyes. "God, I feel safe now." He cast a quick glance at her red uniform and laughed. "Then again, you're as good as dead."

"How so?"

"Redshirt."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"First to die on missions." He laughed again, dryly. Leona glared at the man, fighting to keep a snarky remark at bay. The man's own shirt was blue. He was a doctor.

After graduation, she had heard plenty of rumors about redshirts and their ill-fated missions to strange planets. Everyone claimed that redshirts were always the first to die, and somehow Leona didn't doubt it.

When the starship docked, she shouldered her Starfleet-issue bag and stood, stomach fluttering a little.

The others filed off, into the loading dock, and Leona followed them, her breath quickening as she inhaled the clean, deep smell of space. They stepped into a long white hallway, nearly empty save for a couple of uniformed officers. Leona's friend from the Academy, an older girl who had graduated a year before, had sent her periodic letters from the _USS Farrow_, recounting various experiences in space.

According to Milla, cadets found themselves in a hectic environment; hallways crowded with people and sound. She had written of receiving room assignments and making new friends who were also redshirts.

Not so for Leona. She had graduated ahead of her classmates, far earlier than anyone had anticipated and largely due to her high intelligence.

She was the only cadet on the shuttle; the others were all officers or others returning from ground leave on Earth.

"Ponderly, Leona." A sharply-dressed woman approached, her boot heels clicking on the smooth floor.

"That's me." Leona straightened up, ready to snap a salute, but the woman gave her a kindly smile.

"At ease, Ensign."

She relaxed a little, and the woman tapped her PADD a few times.

"You'll be sharing a room with Ensign Burke. I'll show you around."

"Thank you."

The woman nodded crisply. "My name is Lieutenant Aberson." She took off down the hallway, and Leona hurried after her. The others had disappeared by now, vanishing into the depths of the ship.

Lieutenant Aberson gave Leona a brief tour of the ship, speaking about every room in a crisp, clear voice.

"This is the cafeteria. Meals are three times daily, at 0600 hours, 1200 hours, and again at 1700 hours. Don't be late." She gave Leona a small smile that seemed friendly enough.

They continued at a quick pace, and Leona began to sense that maybe the Lieutenant didn't really want to be giving her this tour.

"Our communications room. The Medical Bay." She gestured to a long room lined with hospital beds and medical equipment. A young man wearing a redshirt was sprawled on one of the beds, groaning. His arm was mangled terribly, a bloody mess.

Leona felt her eyes widen. "That guy...what happened?"

"An incident in Engineering. He'll be fine."

"Yeah. Of course." Leona nodded. When she saw a young woman dressed in blue sweep past and begin to disinfect the man's arm, she felt a little pang of longing.

"We should move on." Lieutenant Aberson said. Leona nodded again.

"Yes. Of course."


End file.
